During the 2006 conflict in southern Lebanon, about 25% of the Hezbollah-fired missiles struck populated areas in northern Israel. In the current conflict, while Israeli security is keeping a lid on where the Hamas and Jihadist missiles have landed, the very few deaths reported in Israel—in the single digits—indicate that the first five batteries of the short-range, Iron Dome missile defense system are surprisingly efficient.

Once spy agencies drove development of advanced investigative cybertechnology, but now banks, credit card companies, PayPal, Google and Yahoo are driving development. The change is benefiting intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies because this new generation of investigative platforms is designed to deal with massive amounts of data.

Elbit's Intelligence and Cyber Solutions unit is aiming its Wise Intelligence Technology (WIT) data manipulation platform at the growing dual-use market that this trend has created.

A common central idea in defending military, government and commercial networks from cyberattack involves “operating through the attack.” To do so, the defender needs near-real-time awareness of an attacker's methods and targets and the ability to manage consequences on the fly.

Computer networks that control crucial industrial and manufacturing processes, and vital energy and water utilities, were once considered immune to cyberattack, because in theory they were “air-gapped,” with no physical connection to the worldwide Internet. But that notion has died as researchers have found obscure Internet connections in virtually every automated system.

Nobody is under any illusions about whether an attack on Iran's advanced weapons complex will end that country's advanced weapons threat or intimidate Tehran's government into inaction.

“You have the day after, which some people say [will produce] a regional war, while others expect a calculated, limited Iranian action,” says Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli air force fighter pilot who bombed the nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and later became Israel's military intelligence chief. He expects the latter.

As the Arab Spring progresses, Israel is being surrounded by what its intelligence community calls Safar—bad lands, wilderness, no man's land. These enclaves are administered by weak governments with limited influence where the rule of law is often absent.

Since its introduction to combat in Afghanistan in March, about 100 of the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps new low-cost, precision air-launched missiles have been fired at enemy vehicles and troops from AH-1W Cobra and UH-1Y transport helicopters.

The general feeling among many of China’s naval neighbors and in U.S. military circles is that China has been turning into a bit of a bully in (re)staking territorial claims in the seas off its coasts....More

Former Editor-in-Chief Dave North wrote pilot reports on more than 120 aircraft during his career at Aviation Week. His visits to Embraer began in 1978, long before the Brazilian company’s privatization and emergence as a powerhouse in regional jets. Here, he recalls his Embraer experiences, culminating in a test flight of the E170....More